Honour Thy Father

While convicted politicians have been contesting elections with the help of proxies, a new trend has emerged wherein the criminality of a political opponent is automatically attributed to his family

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Home Minister Amit Shah, as a star campaigner of the ruling alliance in Bihar, has repeatedly invoked the imagery of 'Jungle Raj' that will result if the RJD comes to power. In particular, fingers have been pointed at Osama Shahab, son of deceased RJD leader and strongman Mohammad Shahabuddin, who has been given a ticket from Raghunathpur constituency in Siwan and Shivani Shukla, daughter of Munna Shukla, who has been given a ticket from Lalganj assembly constituency in Vaishali.

The political hypocrisy of this-that the BJP and JD(U) have themselves given tickets to kith and kin of convicted criminals while decrying the fact that the RJD is doing the same-is nothing new. What does call for comment is the ushering in of a new era in recent years, where criminality of a political opponent is automatically attributed to his family.

At the height of the era of the permissibility of criminality in politics, persons accused and even convicted of heinous crimes entered politics, contested elections from jail and conducted public affairs from jail with intervals of furlough.

Then the Supreme Court intervened and, in the Lily Thomas judgement in 2013, directed that disqualification would take effect immediately upon conviction, and wouldn't be placed in abeyance simply on account of pendency of the appeal unless the conviction was specifically stayed by the appellate court. As a result, under Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, a legislator convicted for six months or more for one of the heinous offences mentioned in the section, or for any other offence with a punishment of over two years, stands immediately disqualified from being a public representative. This moved the scene of political battle to the courtroom as the political dividend of procuring the conviction of an opponent grew.